Missing the mark.Byline: The Register-Guard Two Hurricane Katrina-related items from the What Were They Thinking Dept.: Item One is the mind-boggling request by the Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the federal agency responsible for coordinating emergency planning, preparedness, risk reduction, response, and recovery. The agency works closely with state and local governments by funding emergency programs and providing technical that the news media not take photographs of people killed by Katrina. The spin from the embattled federal disaster response agency is that documenting deaths caused by the storm would undermine FEMA's efforts to recover victims' bodies with "dignity and respect." Hello? More than 25,000 body bags have been sent to New Orleans in what everyone hopes is a huge overestimation of potential fatalities. Still, it underscores how significant a part of the story the death toll will become. Whatever the ultimate count, censoring the recovery of bodies - most of which will belong to the same poor, black population that was left behind in the evacuation - won't do anything to restore dignity and respect to people who were forgotten because they were invisible to many officials. It's also disturbingly consistent with the Bush ad- ministration's "out of sight, out of mind "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" was the 99th episode of the M*A*S*H television series, and the third episode of the fourth season. Written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs and directed by Gene Reynolds, it first aired on October 5, 1976 and was repeated December 28, 1976. " policy banning photos of caskets carrying the remains of soldiers killed in action in Iraq as they arrive at Dover Air Force Base Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB (IATA: DOV, ICAO: KDOV, FAA LID: DOV) is a base of the United States Air Force in the state of Delaware. The base is located two miles south of the city of Dover — the capital of Delaware. . Item Two is less egregious by a long shot, but still deserves comment. Some African-American leaders, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus Congressional Black Caucus, organization of African-American members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Founded in 1970, it addresses legislative concerns of African Americans and other minority citizens, such as employment, welfare reform, minority business and the National Association of Black Journalists The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), was founded in 1975 by 44 men and women in Washington, D.C. Headquartered at the University of Maryland, College Park and with 3300 members, it is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation. , have been sharply critical of applying the term "refugee" to people displaced by the hurricane. "It is racist to call American citizens refugees," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said during a visit to the Astrodome. Critics argue that Katrina's victims are not people fleeing a foreign country for political reasons. Calling them refugees is disdainful and demeaning. "Evacuee e·vac·u·ee n. A person evacuated from a dangerous area. Noun 1. evacuee - a person who has been evacuated from a dangerous place migrant, migrator - traveler who moves from one region or country to another " is a more apt term, they say. That may be true, but this semantic distraction trivializes a catastrophe. There is nothing - nothing - derogatory about the term "refugee." Attempting to elevate such hairsplitting hair·split·ting n. The making of unreasonably fine distinctions. hair  split objections
to the level of racism threatens legitimate efforts to identify and
eliminate offensive language from popular usage.
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